Nico and I look at each other, and I’m not sorry for the color the kiss put back in his cheeks.
“Sleep?” he asks.
“Sleep,” I confirm.
“Goodnight, angel.”
“Goodnight,” I say with a yawn. I want to tell him I love him, but I don’t know if he remembers me saying it when he was barely conscious, and, on the off chance he doesn’t, I can probably make it a nicer, less desperate experience when I retell him for the first time.
“Este?”
“Yeah?”
“Do I snore?”
The question is so unexpected that I can’t stop the laugh that bubbles up. “What? Where did that come from?”
“Just curious,” he replies, after a small pause that makes me think he’s leaving something out. Interesting.
“You do snore. Really loudly, actually. But I like it—Sloane does, too, so it’s familiar. It reassures me you’re there.”
The room is dark, but light enough that I can see the smile curve his lips. “Good. As long as I’m not annoying you.”
“Never,” I promise him, laying my head on his chest. Not even a minute passes before the exhaustion of the past couple of days drags me under.
28
NICO
“Are you out of your mind? What makes you think it’s a good idea to spend your recovery on a goddamn mountain an hour from civilization? What if something goes wrong?”
Shay is a little scary when she’s mad, and boy, she’s pissed.
“Is something likely to go wrong?” I ask Dr. Martinez, who is glancing warily between us.
“I wouldn’t expect so. But I would recommend being somewhere a little less… remote, if possible.”
My sister has the same “I told you so” expression she did when we were eleven and Georgie and I opened the fancy chocolates our mom bought for Christmas Day a few days early. Shay refused to eat any because she knew Mom would be furious—she was, and Shay was the only one of us who didn’t have to spend Christmas Eve doing extra chores.
“Hah! Exactly. You can stay with Noelle and me.” She says it like it’s the easiest thing in the world.
I love her, but considering I spent almost twenty-three years living alone until Este showed up, suddenly livingwith someone new doesn’t sound easy to me, especially with how overwhelming the past few days have been. But how do I tell the sister I’m trying to build a better relationship with that I would rather stay in the hospital than at her place?
Noelle must see it on my face because she takes pity on me. “Shay, sweetheart, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“What? Why?”
“Well, for starters, we have a one-bedroom apartment and a tiny couch,” Noelle points out.
Shay counters right away, like she had her answer waiting to go. “We’ll sleep on an air mattress in the living room, and Nico can take our bed.”
“We both know Croissant would pop an air mattress.” Croissant is their black cat. I’ve met him twice, and he likes me about as much as the dogs like Shay. “Besides, Nico clearly doesn’t want to stay with us, and he’s just too polite to say it. And who could blame him? After the week he’s had, I bet he’d like a little peace. Right?”
“Right,” I confirm. “It’s nothing personal, Shay. I’m just…”
“Peopled out?” Este offers. I’ve never heard anything more accurate.
“Exactly.”
